Central banks are net buyers of gold

[SilverApe]

Hi,

This is not an entry (as I published this elsewhere), but I had written about recent gold shortages on my little blog and how China is accumulating and the UK had sold off most of its stockpile. 

Edited May 25, 2020 by SilverApe

[ChrisSilver]

Split to a new topic  

[Prophecy]

In times like this, central banks usually are net buyers of gold.

I still believe there has to be a reason why Gordon Brown announced the bulk sale before it happened. There has to be a cunning reason.... right? (I believe the money raised was invested in a higher return asset but why announce the sale?! it immediately depressed the sale price when he eventually sold!)

There are also rumours (mostly assumptions based on rumours) that China actually has 10x the amount of reserve gold because they mine the living hell out of it straight to reserve. Strategy against the dollar in the future? Why not! They'd be silly NOT to do that based on their persuasion and position. Either way, you can assume all 'privately' held gold in China is the CCPs to 'patriotically' 'appropriate' through 'indirect' methods at any time because Communism (not like US 1934). But that's another topic entirely and probably not for this forum.

[SilverApe]

Yep, totally agree. Do you think @Prophecy that a gold backed Yuan is in the making? Personally, I'm not so sure that could come about as it would mean the world would need to essentially trust the Chinese Central Bank and its contextualize politics.

In either case there is a movement of metal from West to East. 

[Zhorro]

Central Banks appear to be buying gold: "Thailand, Hungary and Brazil now make this trio the top 3 central bank gold buyers so far in 2021".

https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/ronan-manly/brazils-central-bank-refuses-to-answer-any-questions-about-its-gold-reserves/

[SidS]

On 09/05/2020 at 00:24, Prophecy said:

I still believe there has to be a reason why Gordon Brown announced the bulk sale before it happened. There has to be a cunning reason.... right?

I'm starting to think (and it may be bigger than just the UK to be honest, mostly in Western countries) that politicians since the late 1950s have actually done everything in their power to weaken and destroy their countries.

Just looking at the UK, in the 1980s Thatcher stripped out the industries and shut them down (yes some were ailing, but they could have modernised and invested in like Germany after WW2), she also sold off transport and utility companies to foreign investors who just want to cream off the profits. How many times do you see the energy companies put up their tariffs?

Brown sold off the gold at the lowest price in the decade and left the country in swathes of debt by 2010.

Cameron came in with austerity and starved the country of investment and yet seems to have made little dent in the national debt which has now been totally made pointless by the covid money printing machine. Although the elite made great gains.

Blair gave away more political powers to the EU... Started of course by Heath in the 1970s. Theresa May was determined to see the UK stuck in a weird limbo when leaving the EU (a vassal state without any benefits of being either in the EU nor out of it). Ruled by people without the option to vote them in or out...

Let's not forget the whole political correctness and changing the language and wholesale rebranding (spin) of the Blair years.

Although the Tories set up the Dr Beeching report, it seems the Wilson government went along with it with relish... Stripping out railway networks across the country because they weren't profitable... How in the modern world where we are trying to champion green politics and the environment, and reducing car usage, we have an overworked network with so few duplicate routes and communities isolated from public transport. Buses well they're dire outside of London... Thatcher gets that point.

Then we come to electricity generation. It seems to me we are going to be using more and more of the stuff in the decades coming (heating/cookers/cars etc.) And yet we seem to be closing power stations at a rate of Knots, so where does all this power we need come from?

The politicians of any party, only care for their bank balances and utter control of the people they are supposed to represent.

Tax 'em hard, impoverish them, strip away their freedom of thought, enslave them to following endless rules and regulate the way they behave and think. And just to sweeten the deal throw in some bread and circuses... Here's what you could have won... Free broadband for everyone. Get Brexit Done. Education, education, education... (Student debt has skyrocketed since 1997).

The west seem to be stripping their countries to the bone, the east seem to be stockpiling gold and building strong militaries. Something's afoot...

[Martlet]

2 hours ago, SidS said:

The west seem to be stripping their countries to the bone, the east seem to be stockpiling gold and building strong militaries. Something's afoot...

Interesting review, skip past objections and straight to the conclusion.  Would you rather be in the East or the West?

[Minimalist]

1 minute ago, Martlet said:

Would you rather be in the East or the West?

It has to be the East because its much easier to become financially independent.

[Minimalist]

2 hours ago, SidS said:

The west seem to be stripping their countries to the bone, the east seem to be stockpiling gold and building strong militaries. Something's afoot...

State-Enterprise in the East is working. If you look at the balance sheets in the whole region they are filled with remarkable returns. 

[SidS]

20 minutes ago, Martlet said:

Interesting review, skip past objections and straight to the conclusion.  Would you rather be in the East or the West?

A good question... Not an easy answer.

It depends really, if you're asking whether I'd want to live in a communist country then the answer is categorically no.

However, in the East there seems to be a will (whether benevolent or not) to maintain a strong national identity and to maintain (or try to maintain) a sense of independence. I figure this is what's behind Russia, China and others stockpiling gold. It's a way to become financially independent from the west.

The West on the other hand, everything seems to be for sale, in some race to the bottom. Be that the NHS, pensions, housing, utilities etc. Nationality and looking after your country discouraged by globalists. Do you see anyone in the West stating we should hoard gold in the state coffers and make our countries proud, strong and invest in our own industries, make countries able to be independent - particularly relevant regarding the world wide lockdown with covid?

Just a thought.

[SidS]

To answer your question I'd like my country to be proud of its heritage, and invest in its companies and actually manufacture and make things. You know the days when you could say 'made in Britain' and actually be renowned and respected for it (like German cars, French wine and cheese), and not like British Leyland.

Is that so wrong?

Edited August 19, 2021 by SidS

[Bigmarc]

1 hour ago, SidS said:

Is that so wrong?

No 

It was probably your point but British Leyland went down years ago and even then it was owned by BMW. Even British airways is Spanish. It is very hard to find a British owned company but we do have Gregg's and sports direct, only a matter of time before someone comes in a swoops those bad boys up. 

[SidS]

17 minutes ago, Bigmarc said:

No 

It was probably your point but British Leyland went down years ago and even then it was owned by BMW. Even British airways is Spanish. It is very hard to find a British owned company but we do have Gregg's and sports direct, only a matter of time before someone comes in a swoops those bad boys up. 

That's exactly my point, Britain contributes nothing, even British brands, we just sell off our assets and buy everything in. A nation of 'middle men' as the old term goes.

To wander back onto topic. It'd be interesting to compare which countries are the top ten buyers of gold holdings, compared to which countries have little or next to none, when historically they held gold.

Canada would rank highly me thinks for holding little/nothing. They were proud that they'd sold it ALL a few years ago.

Edited August 19, 2021 by SidS
Spellings

[HawkHybrid]

3 hours ago, SidS said:

To answer your question I'd like my country to be proud of its heritage, and invest in its companies and actually manufacture and make things. You know the days when you could say 'made in Britain' and actually be renowned and respected for it (like German cars, French wine and cheese), and not like British Leyland.

Is that so wrong?

 

which would you rather inherit?

1. a lump of gold

2. a comparable understanding of gold

 

'made possible by britain' is so much better than merely 'made in britain' ?

almost anybody can copy a design but there is something special about the original pioneers of a design.

 

HH

Edited August 19, 2021 by HawkHybrid

[SidS]

Probably a lump of gold to be honest.

[HawkHybrid]

2 minutes ago, SidS said:

Probably a lump of gold to be honest.

then you are thinking in the past.

a lump of gold represents someone else's hard labour to get the metal in a useful form.

inheriting it, you can spend it or leave it as an heirloom. but you have no way of expanding it.

a comparable understanding of gold allows you to secure any gold you come across in your

lifetime and add to it when possible. the work is not done but the world is your oyster.

 

compare: give a man a fish and he might be fed for a day, give a man the ability to fish and

he might go fishing every day.

 

HH

[Martlet]

4 hours ago, SidS said:

A good question... Not an easy answer.

It depends really, if you're asking whether I'd want to live in a communist country then the answer is categorically no.

However, in the East there seems to be a will (whether benevolent or not) to maintain a strong national identity and to maintain (or try to maintain) a sense of independence. I figure this is what's behind Russia, China and others stockpiling gold. It's a way to become financially independent from the west.

Indeed it is not easy.  The east is a mix of authoritarian and socialist states, with less than robust rule of law or recognition of property rights.  The nations may be trying to be financially independent, but at a whiff of failure they'll be seizing your property.  The individual is not so independent as in the west.  

[Arganto]

Ecuador seems like it may be worth a look. 

Ideally turning Britain around and making it a place where our progeny can thrive would be the ideal scenario. However there is something interesting about resource rich countries in South America getting their stuff together and thriving. I understand that the region can be fraught with problems but somewhere like Ecuador may be a savvy place to start a business, or at least get involved in their economy. They need more gold though 😁

[Zhorro]

Central Banks are still buying gold.  India, for example, is doing it stealthly:

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/indian-central-bank-accumulating-large-quantities-gold-almost-under-radar

whereas Poland is fairly open about it intention to buy more gold next year:

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/poland-central-bank-buy-100-tons-gold-2022

[Zhorro]

Interestingly, you don't hear of central banks buying silver.  Does anyone know why central banks do not seem to buy silver but just focus on gold?

[SidS]

I guess they don't see silver as money. Silver was just pocket change after all, at least after the triumph of gold in the 1300s, when silver stopped being used for large international payments.

Gold has higher value in a smaller quantity, thus easier to transport/store.

Imagine how much space banks would need to store millions of dollars worth of silver, it'd probably cost them more in rent for the building. 😁

[HerefordBullyun]

I think you'll find also with silver. A certain bank has cornered the market with physical so to dominant the paper market. It starts with J P ends in Morgan... And it's got the record for spoofing the market...

Edited October 8, 2021 by HerefordBullyun

[KevinFlynn]

In the big picture, silver is more of a commodity than a store of wealth.

The last standard we had was a gold standard, not a silver standard.

The wealth density of gold is much much higher than that of silver (as mentioned above).

[HerefordBullyun]

On 23/08/2021 at 12:16, Liam84 said:

Ecuador seems like it may be worth a look. 

Ideally turning Britain around and making it a place where our progeny can thrive would be the ideal scenario. However there is something interesting about resource rich countries in South America getting their stuff together and thriving. I understand that the region can be fraught with problems but somewhere like Ecuador may be a savvy place to start a business, or at least get involved in their economy. They need more gold though 😁

I've said this before that the next middle East will be South America. Mark my words. Resources and El Salvador turning to crypto. Central Banks won't like that...

Western foreign policy will come and intervene. Mark my words. The narrative will the drug cartels.... But that's been going on for years.

I'm glad I'm not in the military no more. Our generation of soldiers are battle worn. And all were mainly started by Tony Blair.... Iraq Kosovo Bosnia Afghanistan Sierra Leone 

Add his pandora papers in the mix. You can tell by the cut of his jib he's a cretin...

 

Edited October 8, 2021 by HerefordBullyun

[slinkyjynx]

1 hour ago, Zhorro said:

Interestingly, you don't hear of central banks buying silver.  Does anyone know why central banks do not seem to buy silver but just focus on gold?

"Silver is the means by which people settle debts. Gold is the means by which countries settle debts"

Put simply, central banks are in a whole different league to you and I.